Drawings From July 2009, 2009 by Kate Bingaman-Burt

We’ve been closely following the work of Kate Bingaman-Burt over here at 20x200…and there is a lot to keep track of! Between her co-curatorial endeavors at Portland’s Museum of Contemporary Craft, serving as a 2010 Alumni Master at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her ongoing lecture series at Portland State University, she’s also recently done a fantastic interview with Debbie Millman at Design Observer.

Listening to Kate discuss her Obsessive Consumption project yields some fascinating insights on the role everyday consumption plays in shaping human interaction. Although she reveals herself as an artist who didn’t initially like to draw and an English major who doesn’t like to write, Kate talks about how the process of making these drawings helped her tap into the shared lexicon of consumers- how these little rituals create a common language that can serve as ways for people to create a connection.

As someone who “feels good about making something new every day”, Kate is big on being a producer of usefulness in the world. It’s great how her work for Obsessive Consumption neatly closes the creation-consumption circle. All this, plus growing up in a family of weavers and drawing for Target! Take a moment to check out this awesome conversation with Kate.